Robinson to receive Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction

Robinson to receive Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction

By: Office of Strategic Communication | 2016.03.29 | 03:15 pm

Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and F. Wendell Miller Professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will receive the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction Sept. 24 during the 2016 Library of Congress National Book Festival. The ceremony will take place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

The annual prize honors an American writer whose body of work is distinguished not only for its mastery of the art but also for its originality and imagination. The award seeks to commend strong, unique, enduring voices that—throughout long, consistently accomplished careers—have told us something new about the American experience. Robinson was chosen based on the recommendation of a jury of distinguished authors and prominent literary critics from around the world.

Robinson is the author of four novels: Lila (2014), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home (2008), winner of the Orange Prize (UK) and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Gilead (2004), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Housekeeping (1980), winner of PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction. Her five nonfiction books include The Givenness of Things: Essays (2015) and The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (1998).